Best Feature: One of the best ‘retro’ garage bands today.
Genre: Rock’n’Roll
Label: Infect Records www.infectrecords.com
Website: www.
The garage rock revival is an interesting thing. Some bands are forging new heights to garage rock (The Raveonettes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes) while some are regurgitating old stuff (The White Stripes, The Darkness, Jet). People who regurgitate old stuff are interesting to me especially, because I would want to forge new areas, not retread what someone else has done. Plaguiarism doesn’t apply in music though.
The Jet City Fix is a band that straddles both retro and current. They play balls-out rock from the seventies, when rock meant huge major chords, wailing guitars, gargantuan choruses, and yelpy singers. They do that very well. But they also infuse their sound with a lot of punk vibes. In fact, I was tempted to call this a punk album that wants to be retro, but that would be doing it injustice. This is just rock’n’roll for the rebelliousness of it.
The best example of their 70’s rock sound would be “Love it or Leave It”, which is complete with huge, pointless guitar solo, and chugs along in a very awesome way. It even has vintage grunts thrown in for good measure. I mean a song doesn’t get more retro. But they make it sound good!
They also do eighties hair metal, as shown on “Fire It Up”, where they parody the genre so viciously that it looks natural. They know their music history, and man, are they putting it to good use.
But just when you were about to claim this as a classic vintage band, they go and pull out a punk song! Yes, “Sick of Drugs” is a true-blue punk song. It’s a pretty awesome one too.
The only problem with this is that it gets a little monotonous at times. Some of these songs just feel languid and useless (It Don’t Matter), but mostly this album satisfies on all levels.
Looking for some retro-rock that’s fast, hard, and rockin out for no apparent reason other than rock’n’roll’s sake? Look no further than Jet City Fix. This is a great album of rock, showcasing that wonderful time in music before we all got angry. Rock’n’roll rules, man. Rock’n’roll rules.